


Good Boy

by CoffeeFairy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Attempt at Humor, Dorks in Love, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Season 8 Doesn't Exist, Sharing a Bed, Shiro Calls Keith Baby, Sleepy Cuddles, Thirsty Keith, because Keith is emotionally challenged, idiots to lovers, kosmo is a good boy, little bit of jealousy, this is the cotton candy of fic, touch of slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 03:47:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 14,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20482331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoffeeFairy/pseuds/CoffeeFairy
Summary: In which Kosmo has had enough of his human being slow and decides to help him land what he wants - Shiro.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is silly, just so you know. It popped into my head and wouldn't leave me alone so here we are :) It takes place some time after season 7 but season 8 does not exist.

Kosmo liked humans. He liked Galra better, but humans were cute and cuddly, and they had the very best treats. Bacon, sausage, pancakes. They knew how to eat. It was something a space wolf could appreciate. 

In the mornings, Kosmo woke up, stretched luxuriously before having a good stretch by rolling around the sheets until Keith grumbled and got up. Keith was Kosmo’s very own human. He liked Krolia, and Shiro, and Hunk, but Keith was the best. He let Kosmo sleep on his bed and scratched him in the right place behind his ear he could never reach. Plus, he always came up with really fun games and let Kosmo chew on people he didn’t like. Good things all around. 

After Keith stumbled into the shower (Kosmo didn’t like the shower, he’d tried it, it made you all wet) he headed out. Popping out into the hall he liked to walk to the kitchen, just to show everyone he was around and to behave themselves. Hunk was usually already there and he would toss morsels for Kosmo to catch in the air. He didn’t like it when he appeared on top of the refrigerator but otherwise he was nice. 

With breakfast finished he’d accompany Keith to the training area, and they’d practice the teleport technique for fighting. They’d both be warm and panting by the time they’d warmed up. Most days Shiro would spar with them to help. Kosmo liked Shiro. He played fun games too, and he never talked to Kosmo in that annoying high-pitched voice some humans used to speak to him. 

When they had trained, they once more used that horrendous water contraption that made them smell, which made Kosmo’s nose twitch, then they would have lunch. Then Keith would be boring until dinner time, sitting at various tables, talking to various people. He would pop in to check on him and sometimes snooze at his or Shiro’s feet. But mostly he was exploring because “meetings” as they were known, were dull. If he heard the word “meeting”, he knew there would be no play time. Just sitting.

After dinner, Keith would take him outside and then he’d lose the ball he’d brought to play with so many times Kosmo wondered how he ever wielded a weapon. After he got tired of trying to play with the ball, they went for a walk, or even more exciting, a drive. Kosmo loved it when they went hoverbiking, that’s what they called the machines, because then he could really use his teleporting to keep up. Shiro sometimes came with them for that too.

Then they’d go to bed and it would start all over. It was nice. 

Kosmo began roaming further and further in his explorations of the base. He watched people fight, talk, gesture, mash their faces together for something he could tell from the smell was a mating ritual, yell, and make a rolling, ludicrously loud sound when they were happy. Humans were a cute race and Kosmo was starting to understand them better. 

But something Kosmo didn’t understand was why Shiro and Keith weren’t leading their own pack. They were both leaders, he could tell, and he could smell they wanted to be imprinted on each other. But they weren’t. Kosmo pondered that sometimes and he’d come to the conclusion that they didn’t know how. There were a lot of things two-leggeds didn’t know. That’s why they needed Kosmo’s help. And since he quite liked it when they called him a “good boy” and fed him pancakes, he would do his best. 

He’d watched enough of the imprinted humans to know they called them “couples” and he’d checked what they were meant to do. It looked like sharing food, nests and packs were the most important things. Keith and Shiro already spent time with a shared pack - the small one, the big one, the loud one and the Altean. But they didn’t share a nest and he’d rarely seen them offer each other food. Then there was the mating. Humans looked hilarious without their coverings but it seemed this was involved to be imprinted. The face touching with their mouths was important too, but as far as Kosmo could tell this was more of a sign of affection between various pack members. 

Armed with his knowledge, he thought he could give his cute, clueless human some help.


	2. Chapter 2

Keith was sitting in a strategy meeting when Kosmo popped up next to him, leaned against him and then before he knew it he was outside. Falling on his ass. Before he could do or say anything, his space wolf had disappeared. 

“Kosmo!” He got to his feet, looking around. He was in the middle of the desert, his space wolf nowhere in sight. “Kosmo!”

The wolf popped up, a surprised looking Shiro standing like he’d just been getting something out of a tall cupboard an instant ago. 

Then the wolf popped away again.

“What? Kosmo?” Shiro dropped his arms. Turned around and spotted him. “What’s your dog up to?”

“Wolf. I have no idea,” Keith said through clenched teeth.

“Where are we?”

“I haven’t had time to look around but…” He glanced up. “Looking at the sun...somewhere north of the base?”

“But why?” Shiro was looking around as if he would find a neat explanation written in dog-hand nearby.

“No clue. He brought me here a second before he brought you.”

Shiro put his hands to his hips. “Does he need a walk? Is this his not so subtle way of saying so?”

“He can take himself for a walk if he wants to,” Keith shook his head. “He’s never brought me anywhere for no reason.”

“Until now, it looks like,” Shiro smiled. 

Keith’s heart tripped a little in his chest but he shrugged it off. One day, one day he would build up an immunity to that smile. Today was clearly not that day.

Kosmo appeared again, a plastic bag in his mouth. Dropping it, he disappeared once more.

“What’s that?”

Keith bent and checked the bag. Blinked. “It’s...food.”

“He stole food?”

“Kosmo is still learning the whole “not mine” thing,” he gestured loosely with one hand at the words “not mine”.

The wolf popped up once again, this time with fabric clamped in his mouth. Then with a happy bark, he dropped it and danced on his front paws in excitement.

“Is that...a blanket?”

“It’s my duvet!  _ Kosmo !” _

The space wolf looked like he was doggy grinning, tongue hanging out the side of his mouth.

“Kosmo, what are you doing? We need to go back.” Keith pointed south. “Take us back. Now.”

Kosmo just backed, rump in the air, tail wagging.

“Back!”

He yipped and then disappeared. Keith dove for him but missed.

“Keith…” Shiro spoke behind him. “Is this...a picnic?”

“What?” Keith whirled around. 

“Well, there’s food, and a blanket of some description, and we’re outside. It looks like maybe he’s...trying to make a picnic?”

“That’s dumb,” Keith mumbled darkly under his breath. “Why would he want us to go on a picnic? We have things to do. I’m meant to be in a strategy meeting.”

He also didn’t really want to think about how a picnic very much seemed like some kind of date. With Shiro. Just the two of them. He cleared his throat, wished the butterflies in his stomach wouldn’t wake so easily around the other man. 

“I was about to head to lunch, maybe he sensed it?”

“He can teleport, Shiro, I don’t think he can sense when you’re hungry.” He crossed his arms over his chest, hoping to appear a lot less enthusiastic than he felt. 

“No?” Shiro raised an amused eyebrow at him and crossed his arms. “ _ I _ can sense you’re hungry. You’re being grumpy.”

“What? I am not. I don’t like it when my space wolf decides for me that I should be out in the desert, dirtying my duvet for no reason and messing up my schedule and I...Okay, fine, I’m hungry, stop laughing.”

With a huff, Keith sat down on his admittedly very comfortable duvet. Shiro wisely hid his smile in the bag of food. It turned out Kosmo’s idea of lunch was a half chewed pancake, three tomatoes with teeth marks, a box of crackers, and a bag of apples. They decided to stick to the crackers and the apples, safely unmarked. 

Keith tried to remember the last time he and Shiro had eaten anywhere but the base. Surprised, he realized they hadn’t left it since they returned. He said as much to Shiro and the other man frowned, swallowed.

“You’re right.” He looked around. “Maybe Kosmo had a point.” He smiled. 

Keith decided on the spot that he would not tell his wolf off for anything he did that put that smile on Shiro’s face.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so happy you guys liked it so far! Here is the next chapter, please note I changed the rating to T because I am apparently incapable of writing Keith POV without including some thirst. Now on with this absolute silliness!

The tell-tale tug of getting teleported made Keith grimace. At least this time he didn’t fall on his ass. Kosmo had transported him from sitting somewhere to sitting somewhere else. He lowered the pad he’d been watching hoverbike racing on and blinked. He was in the Diner. The Diner off campus where he and Shiro had used to go if they could escape The Garrison back in the day. 

And across from him in the booth, was Shiro.

He was going to berate his wolf, but the air was sucked from his lungs in a painful punch as he took in his appearance.

“Are you...wearing a suit?” He managed, strangled.

Shiro shifted uneasily in his seat. “That’s your first question?”

Keith was pretty sure he wanted it to stay the topic of discussion forever. The suit was slate gray, matched with a pearl white shirt and a black tie. Wrapped around Shiro’s perfect body it looked...otherworldly. He wanted to pull on those lapels to get Shiro to his level, hook his fingers just above the knot in the tie and tug him the last inch before they kissed. He wanted to slip his hands over the wide back covered in expensive fabric and slip it off. He wanted to tear the shirt open and hear the delicate buttons pinging merrily on the floor. He wanted to bask in the power he looked like he wielded wearing that suit. 

Realizing through the haze Shiro had responded, Keith tried to collect the pieces of his thoughts.

“Ah...Yes,” he replied intelligently.

“Kosmo thought you should be outside, did he?”

Keith glanced around. “Apparently.” 

The Diner looked almost exactly as it had, except the clientele now included aliens who with horrified delight drank milkshakes and ate ice cream. Shiro was by far the most overdressed in the place. Something clicked into place and his head snapped back so he could see the other man.

“Shiro...Is this a date?”

A vague color washed over Shiro’s cheeks and Keith was glad he was sitting down. He wasn’t sure his legs would carry him. Had the man of his dreams conspired with his space wolf to surprise him with this? Though he would never in a million years admit it, the romantic side he tried to forget he had melted. Although he did wish he’d been allowed to dress better. Not a suit, because he didn’t own one, but at least not the sleep t-shirt with holes in it and the sweat pants he’d been lounging in when Kosmo appeared. Then again, it wasn’t Shiro’s fault that when he’d said “Get Keith”, he’d been dressed like a grungy college student, complete with Dorito dust down his front. But why hadn’t he just asked him out?

_ Well, why haven’t  _ ** _you _ ** _ “just asked him out”? _ His mind taunted.

Fair.

Across from him, Shiro rubbed a hand over his neck and grimaced.

“The suit is stupid, I know.” He sighed and looked like he had maybe debated internally on this for the last three days.

“It is  _ not  _ stupid.” Keith had a very definitive opinion on that. There were a lot of adjectives that he could use to describe what that suit was, and some nice adverbs to tell what it did to him, and nowhere on the long list of those did “stupid” appear.

“The tie is, right? Who wears a tie?”

Keith would quite like to wear it, and his mind’s eye quite gleefully showed him exactly how. He had to shake his head to clear it.

“You look...nice, Shiro.”

_ Nice. Thanks, Brain. Thank you for imploding on yourself. Shiro looked so good, you couldn’t come up with a better word than “nice”. Do you know what’s nice? Bread. Sunny days. The cashier at the local shop who always greets you. That’s nice. Shiro? Infinitely better than nice. _

Keith’s internal rant was cut short by Shiro speaking.

“Thanks.” He looked out over the Diner. “It’s still a terrible idea, isn’t it? Dating? We’re in the middle of a war and we all have better things to do but…”

Keith leaned across the table. “It’s not a terrible idea. It’s how we should spend the time we have, with those we lov-” He trailed off and cleared his throat. Perhaps a bit much on a first date.

Shiro chuckled. “I don’t know that I love him but I’d like to get to know Curtis better.”

_ What? _

Everything inside Keith ground to a halt, screeching and crashing like a four vehicle pile-up. Bent, twisted, burning and about to blow.

This was a date. But not a date for Shiro and Keith. A date for Shiro and...someone else.

A vague, horrified gurgle escaped him. The misunderstanding made his stomach curl in shame.

Of course Shiro wouldn’t dress up for him. Plan a date and involve his space wolf. Avoid the embarrassment of asking out a long time friend and make a gesture instead. Of course not. After all, Keith was just Keith and Shiro was...Shiro was everything. 

While Keith chewed his lip and berated himself for an idiot, Shiro checked his watch. His impressive shoulders slumped a little.

“Though it looks like he must have been caught up somewhere.”

Dark glee mixed with the awkward knowledge that if Shiro would ever ask him out Keith’d be an hour early, just to be sure. 

“Oh.”

Shiro sighed. “I guess I should…”

“Stay,” Keith blurted. He tried to recover from the squeaky desperation in the word. “ _ We _ should stay. I’ll wait with you.” Yeah, that sounded normal. Maybe?

“He’s already half an hour late, Keith.”

“Then let’s eat?”

Something lifted from Shiro’s gaze and sparkled. He laughed, and the sound stroked something inside Keith that purred in delight.

“All right.” Shiro smiled. “But I’m losing the tie.”

Then Keith’s hormones forced him into a small aneurysm as Shiro tugged on the knot in his tie before undoing the top button of his shirt.

“Right, what are you in the mood for?”

_ Oh god. _

Keith managed a dignified, “Ugh.”

o.O.o

Meanwhile in the desert west of The Garrison, the furthest away from the Diner possible for a space wolf to teleport, Kosmo ran in delighted circles around an angrily yelling man dressed in a suit. Herding him tidily away from the Diner, the space wolf was certain this would earn him a “good boy.”

And maybe even a pancake.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so happy to hear you guys are liking this! I hope you enjoy the next chapter :)

“Kogane!”

Keith turned when he heard his name called and spotted a man from the Atlas bridge crew. He hurried his steps to catch up and stopped in front of him. He looked awkward but it did little to distract from a handsome face and tall frame.

“Yes?”

“I’m Lieutenant Commander Halliday. Curtis Halliday.”

The name didn’t ring a bell. The Atlas crew was so large now, with three shift rotations on a normal day, it was impossible to keep track of them all. 

“Yes, Lieutenant?”

Then his brain, happily already ahead to the next item on his agenda - lunch, wheeled around and zoomed back.

“ _ Curtis? _ ”

Curtis, as in stood-Shiro-up-on-their-date-Curtis.

He crossed his arms, waited. If this guy was looking for his help to give some lame excuse to Shiro he’d-

“Could we talk?”

Stiffly, Keith nodded and they took the corridor to the right. It lead to the kitchens and no one would be coming through it until lunch was finished. Stopping, he stared somewhere over the man’s shoulder to not be reminded of the fact that this was the kind of man Shiro liked. Preferred, over lanky, long-haired younger men he’d known since they were struggling through puberty.

“I spoke to Shiro. I explained to him that the reason I didn’t make the date was that your space wolf kept me trapped in the desert for two hours.”

Keith’s jaw dropped at the same time as his crossed arms.

“He did  _ what _ ?” He wheezed.

“He teleported me from my quarters to the west of the base and wouldn’t let me leave until after the sun had set.”

Keith wasn’t sure if he should laugh or cry.

“I...I’m really sorry...It’s...He’s learning but...I’m sorry, that’s really bad,” he stammered a bit, unsure of how sad he had to look at this development. Because inside, he was heaping praise over his untameable wolf. 

It was Curtis’ turn to cross his arms. “Did you send him to do that?”

“What? Of course not.”

_ Because you didn’t know Shiro was going on a date.  _

Primly, he told his inner voice he wouldn’t have actively stood in Shiro’s way. Not if it made him happy. 

For a long moment Curtis just stared at him. Then he shrugged. “I believe you. God knows why.”

He relaxed a little. Sighed. “Look, I...I really like Shiro but I knew when I asked him out, you two have a past that I...I could never compete with. But…” He uncrossed his arms and stuck them in his pockets. “When I told Shiro what happened, why I didn’t make it? He laughed. He laughed for ages, and he looked really happy. Then he clapped me on the shoulder and said that maybe this was a sign it wasn’t meant to be.”

Curtis grimaced. “And that was that.”

“He...he thought it was funny?”

“It seemed to make him happy. Look, Kogane, I’m not after stealing. Unattached is my type. So I just want to say," he stepped closer, looked Keith straight in the eye. “Look after him.”

It took Keith a minute to catch up. Curtis was already down the hall when he replied, 

“I will.”

Curtis raised his hand, and then he turned the corner.

It was a promise easily given. No matter what happened between him and Shiro, he would always look after him. Want the best for him. 

o.O.o

He was sitting on his couch, with a for once free evening on his hands. Scrolling through the available selection he could see he was predictably years behind on movies released on Earth. He should really try to watch one or two. The next second, his couch sank with the weight of another body as Shiro appeared next to him. 

“Oh.”

Shiro looked around. Saw Keith.

“Hey.”

“Hey back.”

Over Shiro’s lap, Kosmo appeared inordinately pleased, looking between the both of them like he was watching a tennis match.

“Kosmo…” Keith started.

“It’s okay, Keith. At least I didn’t have any other plans this time.”

Keith took in the fact that Shiro, the ever neat, had undone the first buttons in his uniform. It made his nerve endings zing to life like Christmas lights.

“I was just going to have a beer,” Shiro said, then looked down in amusement at the weight on his lap. Kosmo was lolling adoringly over the strong thighs, looking like everything in the world was set to rights. “I guess I’m stuck now.”

It was beneath him to be jealous of his wolf. 

“I have beer, I’ll get you one.”

He got to his feet and fetched two. Held one out to Shiro.

“I forget you’re old enough to have beer now.” He shook his head in amusement. 

Keith’s throat was dry so he sipped his beer before replying, “I’m old enough for a lot of things.”

Shiro’s head snapped up to look at him, his fingers twitching in Kosmo’s fur. Then he relaxed again, the warm, familiar smile flashing. It had something haunted over it.

“I know. You’ve been through a lot.”

Internally, Keith rolled his eyes at himself. So much for trying to flirt. 

_ Because he doesn’t see you that way and he never will! _

His inner voice really was a buzz kill.

“We all have.” He said it curtly, uneasy with the topic. 

“Yeah, but...You were so young when it all started, Keith.”

“I’m not that young anymore.” And he certainly wasn’t getting any younger waiting for Shiro to realize he wasn’t the boy he’d once known anymore. 

Shiro looked down at Kosmo, to hide his smile probably.

“You make it sound like you’re ancient. You’re still a young man, you know. There are...There are so many things you should be experiencing, and would have if it weren’t for this war.”

“Like what?”

“Like...graduating, maybe going to college, dating.”

Keith raised his eyebrows. “Dating?”

“For example. I hear it’s what your twenties are for.”

Keith snorted. “You’re in your twenties, I don’t see you dating up a storm.”

“I’m  _ barely  _ in my twenties anymore. I’m just trying to say, there are things that...That you might have missed out on. Things I wished you got to experience.”

“You wish I’d gotten to _date_ more?” Keith’s voice slid up incredulously.

Shiro shrugged uncomfortably and took a deep pull from his beer. Keith definitely did not stare at his Adam's apple bobbing with the motion.

“No, I…” He sighed. “No, I just wish there was no war.”

Keith could sympathise. 

“Yeah. Me too.”

For a few moments they sat in a comfortable silence, thinking about the paths their lives had taken.

“So...I was going to watch a movie before you...appeared. Do you wanna watch one together?”

_It’s not a date_, he told himself. _Friends watch stuff together all the time._

Shiro glanced at the screen. “You know, I do. I haven’t watched a whole movie in...ages.”

“Okay.”

Knowing the other man’s preference, Keith scrolled to the Action section. In the end they settled for something ancient they both liked, an atrocious, dubbed Asian kung-fu film from the twentieth century. It felt like coming home to laugh in the same places, to speak the lines before they were uttered, to glance at each other before a joke they liked came up. 

At some point Kosmo got too warm and slithered off Shiro’s lap like he was more liquid than creature. Without thinking, Keith stretched his curled up legs to rest in the spot the wolf had abandoned. Slung over Shiro’s lap. The moment he’d settled, the realization hit him and he panicked. He’d just put his legs in his friend’s lap. It was one shaky baby inch from cuddling outright. 

But Shiro didn’t push his legs off, or joke about it. He just continued to watch the film, one of his hands settling on Keith’s ankle. Keith had no idea if he knew his thumb was stroking minutely back and forth. It was simultaneously the most arousing and comforting thing that he had ever experienced. 

Ten minutes before the movie ended, Keith heard Shiro’s breaths slowing. He hadn’t stopped fixedly staring at the screen though he had stopped watching it actively forty-five minutes ago while his brain quietly melted and prepared to ooze out through his ears. It was a price he was more than willing to pay for the easy intimacy of the touch. Shiro’s head lolled to the side and his hand stopped moving. Keith quietly exhaled.

After using the entire rolling of the end credits to collect himself, he gently disentangled (though he would have paid almost anything to stay where he was and hope that gravity would conspire to land Shiro’s sleeping form on his lap) himself and rose. Pulling the extra blanket from his closet, he draped it over Shiro. Unable to resist, he reached out. Running his fingers through Shiro’s bangs to push them off his forehead, his breath wheezed out of his lungs. The hair sifting through his fingers was so soft. He’d always known it would be.

Shiro looked so much younger asleep. The years weren’t etched in his skin, but in his gaze and hidden by his eyelids, he looked more like the man he’d first met. He wished he could have kept some of the darkness he now held out the gray gaze, could have shouldered some of the pain he knew the other man carried. Taken his scars, carved them into his own skin. Lifted more of the burdens others so easily placed on those wide shoulders.

Snatching his hand back before it got any wilder ideas, he gestured to Kosmo.

“Take him to his bed, please.”

The wolf snorted but got up sleepily, ambled over and blinked away. 

Then his couch was empty for a second before the wolf appeared again. With a luxurious yawn and stretch, he flopped back on his back and presented his belly. Belly rubs were the price for late night transports, it seemed. Keith happily paid that price too, with a whispered,

“Good boy,” in the dark of the room. 


	5. Chapter 5

Keith had just gotten comfortable in his seat when Kosmo brushed by and then he was in the gym, sitting on the rubber floor of the training room. In the sparring ring, Shiro and Kincade were practicing. Shiro was wearing sweatpants and a tank, his feet bare and Keith’s breaths got a little clogged. LIke mild asthma. When they were sparring it was a lot easier to focus on practicing and not the way Shiro’s biceps curled when he bent his arm, or how low the sweatpants rode on his hips, showing off the ridge of hipbone underneath. He could disregard the way his hair curled a little against his forehead where it had gotten damp and they way that fantastic jaw set with determination. Now, just watching, he could feel every cell in his body reacting. Like they’d been magnetized they were all pulling him elementally towards Shiro. Soon Keith was sure they’d be able to use him as a locator for the other man. He’d just automatically snap to look at him, like a compass needle seeking north. 

Next to him, Kosmo growled low and Keith looked over. His wolf was standing, ears back and teeth bared, ready to spring. 

“Kosmo, they’re just practicing. Shiro is okay,” Keith soothed.

Shiro timely proved this as he felled Kincade to the mat. But Kosmo didn’t stop his growling, uneasily moving. Keith put his arm around his neck, stroking. Under his arm the strong body was vibrating.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

Across the room, Shiro was laughing and held out a hand to Kincade, pulling him up from the mat. Shiro slung an arm around the younger man, a friendly, affectionate gesture. A stitch of jealousy pricked under Keith’s skin and he told himself not to be ridiculous. He was behaving like his wolf. His eyes widened. 

_ He was behaving like his wolf. _

He turned his head to watch Kosmo again, the large wolf sitting next to him, every muscle tense and ears flat back over his head. He was still tensed with a growl. 

“Shh, it’s okay, Kosmo. Shiro gets to practice with others but us too.”

Kosmo gave a little whine. Then the familiar tug went through him and the next instant he was sitting, arm still slung around Kosmo, but between Shiro and Kincade. The dark-skinned man stumbled back and Keith jumped to his feet.

“Kosmo!” he berated.

The wolf slipped away to stand next to Shiro, then doggy grinned smugly and pushed his nose into Shiro’s hand. 

Kincade lifted an eyebrow in an entirely too knowing way and held up his hands with a smile, backing away. Shiro frowned down at Kosmo who was leaning his entire body against his leg, wagging his tail. Misreading the intention, he patted him on the head.

“I’m okay, boy. We’re just practicing.”

Keith gave Kosmo a look through narrowed eyes that the wolf completely ignored to lick Shiro’s hand adoringly. 

“I’m sorry, Shiro. I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”

“Don’t worry about it, he thought he was helping.”

_ Yeah, right _ , Keith thought. More like Kosmo had gotten jealous like a child who watched someone else play with their toys. Now he was sitting proudly, preening under Shiro’s attention, smugly watching Keith from under Shiro’s hand. 

o.O.o

Keith wasn’t really sure what had gotten into Kosmo. He’d teleported Keith into people’s paths before, when he was a puppy. To teleport someone else was something, as far as Keith could tell, that required practice. Practice he now had. But now it had started up again, and he’d teleported them into Shiro’s path four times in the last two days. The older man had almost tripped over them every time. While Keith didn’t mind getting an armful of Shiro, keeping him from falling over an excellent excuse to wrap his arms around him, he did mind getting his day interrupted. 

So he sat his wolf down for a serious talk.

“Kosmo, what are you doing? Why do you keep bringing me to Shiro?”

The wolf tilted his head, ears flicking. At the mention of Shiro his tail thudded against the floor. 

“Don’t play dumb with me, why are you doing this?”

Kosmo yipped and licked his face, then disappeared. Keith sat back on his haunches, sighing.

“Good talk,” he muttered to himself. 

The next second he was teleported and appeared promptly in Shiro’s quarters. 

The older man was sitting at his desk and when he heard someone in his room, he looked up. 

“Keith,” he greeted. “Kosmo is taking you for a walk again, I see.” 

The corners of his eyes creased really distractingly when he smiled.

Eventually Keith’s brain caught up that the voice wasn’t just there to tease his nervous system into a frenzy but had actually said something. 

“Ah...Yes. It seems.” He realized it was perhaps more than a touch rude to appear unannounced in his friend’s room. “I’m sorry. We’ll go.”

Although Kosmo had already made himself at home in a...Was that a dog basket?

“It’s okay, you’re here now and I was hoping for an excuse to not have to work any longer.”

“Did...Is that...a dog bed?”

Kosmo looked very much at home in a large wicker basket with a fleece pillow in it. The pillow was dark blue with space ships, suns, planets and stars on it. It was adorable and really had no place in the stark Garrison-assigned room. 

Shiro looked over to where Keith was indicating.

“Yeah.” He leaned back in his desk chair. “He was here a lot so I thought I’d get him someplace comfy to hang out.”

_ I love you and will you please marry me and kiss me until I possibly pass out from oxygen deprivation and then when I wake up, do it again? _

“Oh.” Keith cleared his throat and occupied his hands by sticking them in his pockets. “Thanks. For doing that.”

“No problem.” Shiro smiled at the wolf. “I like having him around.”

“Even when he teleports us into your way?” Keith's eyebrow arched.

The other man chuckled. “Even then. Do you have any idea why though? It’s not like he always has.”

Keith ran a hand through his hair. “I...I don’t know if it works the same way but I’ve been reading up about some stuff. I think it might be a herding instinct.”

At least that was the closest the web had managed to extrapolate for him when he searched on Kosmo’s behaviour.

“He thinks we’re  _ sheep _ _?_ Or...space sheep, I guess?”

Keith couldn’t help laughing. “Not quite. He...He thinks we’re his pack. And the pack should stay together. It’s an instinct, for protection.”

“He wants us to protect him?”

“Yes, but more likely I think he thinks he’s protecting us. Which he can only do if we’re in the same place.”

“But we can’t always be in the same place. We’d have to...I don’t know, live together, never leave the planet, fly the same ship.”

Keith wished it sounded more unappealing. 

“Uh...maybe it’s a phase? We haven’t been on Earth for very long and I think he’s still settling in. He’ll understand soon enough we can’t always be together.” He considered his sentence for a millisecond and added “in the same room.”

The older man looked consideringly at the space wolf, where he was dozing happily in his basket.

“Yeah, maybe. It can’t be easy to settle in on a whole new planet.”

“Hopefully he’ll stop soon.”

Keith didn’t really want to acknowledge the part of him that wholeheartedly wished his space wolf never stopped teleporting him to Shiro.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so the obliviousness continues! I am so glad to hear you're liking this, I'm having fun writing it :)


	6. Chapter 6

The next time it happened, Keith had just gotten back from a long day. Sitting in his quarters, he wondered if he could summon the energy to head to the cafeteria for an unsatisfactory dinner. It had been a bitch of a day and he really could do without it ending with a helping of food goo congealing in his stomach. With so many mouths to feed, the Garrison had adopted the food goo for its nutritional properties and it was a good move, logistically and strategically. That didn’t mean Keith liked food goo any more than he’d used to.

Deciding it was too far to go for such a disappointing goal, he dug through his reserve instead. Buried under a heap of instant noodles was a pack of pop tarts. In the current environment of uncertainty of invasion it was worth more than gold. 

Digging one of the precious foil packs out, he ripped it open and bit.

The next moment he was nowhere. In flashes he saw the desert, a bit of road.

“I hope that’s not your dinner.”

At Shiro’s voice, his head swivelled. 

They were in the desert. Again. Keith, fallen on his ass, again. He looked up at where the other man was leaning against his hover bike. It brought a pang to his chest, remembering a time when it had always seemed like he was looking up to Shiro. Admiring him, wishing to be more like him. And it reminded him he had used to be a lot shorter than him. Now they were just a couple of inches apart.

“No,” Keith lied, mouth full of pop tart. “It’s a starter.”

Shiro raised an eyebrow in a look of amused disbelief that shouldn’t be as sexy as it was. 

“Mhm. You have the taste buds of a five-year-old.”

“As if you don’t have the biggest sweet tooth at the Garrison.”

Shiro grinned, reaching out a hand to help Keith up and he took it.

Perhaps because he’d just been thinking about the past, he realized back when he’d first known Shiro he would have scoffed and gotten to his feet without help. Proving he didn’t need it. It was the older man who had shown him it was okay to accept help, to ask for it, even. That it wasn’t stupid to rely on other people. Some of them really did stick around. 

Stumbling a little from the force of Shiro pulling him off the ground, he steadied himself by leaning against his side. 

“I hope you’re planning to share that, since your wolf kinda kidnapped me.”

Shiro’s voice was speaking almost directly against his ear and his breath fanned over Keith’s cheek. Pressed against his side as he was, his body caught up and promptly muddled his brain with thoughts of how the heat of his skin travelled through his clothes, of how his frame was so much bigger than Keith’s, how hard and unyielding it felt against him. 

Entranced, Keith tipped his head back so he could meet Shiro’s eyes and saw the humor glittering in his eyes. He didn’t seem put out in the least that Kosmo had pulled him from his evening and he was now out in the desert with Keith.

Still enthralled, Keith lifted the pop tart and Shiro’s eyes widened a fraction at the gesture. Then he smiled, humor returning. Curling an arm around Keith’s shoulders for balance, he leaned down and took a bite of the confection. Keith could only stare at his lips, watching them touch the frosting, bite gently. A dusting of pink icing stuck to his bottom lip and his tongue darted out to catch it, sweeping it away. Keith’s throat clicked uselessly as he tried to swallow but didn’t have the brainpower to. 

“Mmm,” Shiro said and it chased a full body shiver through Keith. “Strawberry.”

The noise in his head was distracting, a whooshing, building in volume as his defenses started going down in flames. This was exactly why he struggled to spend time with the other man. He couldn’t trust himself not to want this.

Fighting the desperate wish clawing in his chest to lean in the last few inches and taste the sweetness from Shiro’s lips, he cleared his throat. 

“Allegedly.” His voice was rasping, deepened even to his own ears. “I think it’s mostly E-something or other.”

“Probably.”

Sensing Keith’s posture, Shiro shifted so their sides weren’t pressed together anymore. But he left his arm still curled around Keith’s shoulders.

“Wanna watch the sun set before we head back?”

_ It’s not romantic.  _

_ It’s not romantic.  _

_ It’s not romantic. _

_ Leaning against a hover bike while sharing a pop tart couldn’t be considered a date.  _

_ No way. _

“Yeah, sure.” He hoped Shiro didn’t hear his voice had gotten squeakier. 

  
  


o.O.o

“So, I don’t know how he did it but he’s transported my hover bike here. I was expecting he’d bring yours too.”

Keith frowned. “I’m not sure he’d be able to. He does have limits, I guess.”

And, he resigned himself, these limits meant he would be riding behind Shiro, arms wrapped around him, chin pressed to his shoulder so he could smell just a note of after shave, gasoline and laundry powder in the heady mix that made up Shiro after a day at work. He’d be testing his own limits. 

It was exactly as painful and enjoyable as Keith had envisaged to sit wrapped around Shiro, the air whipping around them. A few moments into the ride, Kosmo appeared, running with his tongue lolling from his mouth, zipping around the vehicle. A blur to the left, a happy bark to the right, then away to race in front. His exuberance was infectious and with a quick glance over his shoulder, Shiro started putting the bike through its paces. Keith didn’t know how he’d managed to forget that Shiro could drive like this. After all, he’d been the one to teach him. 

Bent together into the wind, the speed, the whipping wind and the rush of air in his ears lifted his spirits. There was no freedom like flying. Urging Shiro on with a squeeze of his arms, the other man soared over the edge of a cliff and let gravity take them. The free fall made Keith’s stomach lift in a pleasant, ticklish sensation. Knowing Shiro’s skill would never let them down, he enjoyed it to its fullest. Burrowing his nose into the fabric of Shiro’s jacket, he closed his eyes and felt the speed pick up, Earth pulling them towards her. The scent and the sensation lead to memories he hadn’t thought of in ages. This was how he’d used to feel sometimes looking at Shiro, like he’d missed a step in a stair and was slipping, waiting for the phantom ground to meet him. It had been all his young brain had had to compare that fluttering feeling in his stomach to. It had taken him a ludicrous amount of time to realize he was in love with the older man but when he did, it had been a relief at first. Finally he could put a name on the tumbling, fluttering, rippling sensation the other man woke in him.

It was only later he would understand the futility of it. What he felt was enormous and yet it served no purpose, could be shared by no one. Not until Shiro felt the same.

Not that he ever would.

Keith opened his eyes just as Shiro pulled them up, gravity once more holding them in its grasp. The other man’s laugh reveberated more than sounded, the wind tearing it away so fast he could barely catch it.

At least he could have this. He’d always have this. As long as he didn’t betray himself, he could have Shiro in his life, even if it was just as friends. In moments like this, Keith could almost believe it when he convinced himself it was enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...he wrapped his arm around Keith FOR BALANCE. Yep.
> 
> I'm sorry this got vaguely angsty at the end, it got away from me. Tags updated! Back to silliness soon.


	7. Chapter 7

Keith sat down to the meeting and Kosmo slunk between the legs of his chair, settling down under it with a “Hmmph”. Keith could sympathise, he wasn’t keen on the endless meetings himself. He’d much rather be flying. But the lions were grounded until the repairs were finished and Keith very much felt like a clipped bird. 

Shiro entered and smiled when he saw Keith. Walking by, he gave a quick pat to his shoulder. It was comforting but also unnerving that the other man could so clearly tell he was feeling down.

A fleeting wish to lean into the hand, to curl his fingers around it to make it stay flashed in his mind. But Shiro had already passed and was sitting down on the other side of the table. 

Iverson stood to call the meeting to order. The next moment Shiro flashed from view and Keith had time to say the word “No-”

\- Then he was not sitting in the uncomfortable office chair anymore. He was sitting on something soft and warm and...He looked down. He was sitting on Shiro’s lap. Jerking in shock, he almost fell off and the other man’s arms caught him.

“Whoah,” Shiro laughed and shook his head. “Think this is close enough to satisfy Kosmo’s herding instinct?”

At least that was Keith thought Shiro was saying, his brain had blanked the second he realized he was on the other man’s lap. His hands, on his knee and around his waist burned through the fabric of his uniform and he could feel his chest pressed against his side. The impulse to burrow in and set up house warred with the blazing need to turn his head, dip and kiss the still smiling mouth, swallow the warm sound of that deep laugh, keep it inside him forever.

“No-I mean yes, way too close, yes.” But he didn’t move, despite his brain yelling at him to do so. His body was happily ensconced in Shiro’s arms and listened to no instructions from his nervous system. A nervous system already dangerously occupied with sensing exactly where their bodies touched and how it felt.

Shiro’s hands didn’t move either, securing him against his body.

“Yeah. Way too close.”

Shiro’s voice sounded hoarse and Keith turned wide eyes to face him. The steel gray gaze was travelling over his face, following the lines from his forehead, down his profile to his…lips. He was almost 100% sure Shiro was staring at his lips. He felt his arm, slung around Shiro’s shoulders, twitch in response, pressing creases into the fabric.

The air around them had stilled, no sound barring bated breaths breaking the silence. Keith wet his lips and thought the muscles under his hand tensed. He couldn’t help darting a glance at Shiro’s mouth. His lips were parted a little, looking so incredibly soft and welcoming.

Alarm bells were ringing in his head, klaxons trying to be heard over the need coursing in his veins like a river breaking its banks. Shiro was his best friend, the only family he’d had once and there was no going back if he couldn’t get a hold of himself. If he kissed him now he could break every tie they’d spent the better part of six years forming.

The klaxons had no chance against the force of nature his desperation for Shiro was. 

His head tipped forward, angled slightly. Shiro’s arms tightened around him, his chin tilting back in invitation. Lips parted, their breaths met, touching skin. Keith’s heart thundered in his chest, the beat of it drowning out all sound except blood pounding in his ears. Every cell of his body tugged towards the other man, the force of him magnetic. Unable to pull away, or even to formulate a reason why he should, Keith sucked in a breath that was almost a sob. It was so close, the tension that had been coiling in his body for years wound so tight he could feel it readying to spring. Allow the tension to break, to tear through his walls, flay him open and take what it wanted from him.

A breath apart, Iverson’s voice crackled through the comms system.

_“Captain Shirogane, Commander Kogane, could you please return to the strategy meeting.”_

At the sound of their commander’s voice, Shiro surged to his feet, Keith stumbling but keeping upright. Looking around, he tried to get his brain to work. He felt drunk, struggling to make any sort of connection. Unless his feverished imagination had betrayed him, he’d just been about to kiss Shiro.

“Yes, sir.”

Shiro’s voice was soft but steady when he replied.

“Keith,” he said. “We…We should get back.”

Keith was still struggling to understand which side of the room was up and didn’t think he’d be able to come up with a reply that didn’t involve only nonsensical noise.

o.O.o

After the meeting, where he had done nothing but stare a hole in the conference table, Shiro ducked away before Keith had a chance to follow. For once Kosmo didn’t seem inclined to transport him to the older man so instead he could be left to his rapidly darkening thoughts. What had he just done? Had he really been less than a few inches from kissing Shiro? He didn’t know what had possessed him to…Well, he did know what possessed him. He was powerless against the pull Shiro had on him. Enthralled by how close he’d been, closer than Keith had let him in years. Had he ruined everything? Did Shiro know now? He had to. He’d realized and he couldn’t get away fast enough afterwards.

Glumly, Keith walked down the hall. Of course the older man would do the right thing. He would find him, explain in his gentlest voice with his kindest eyes that he just didn’t see Keith that way and that he was flattered but couldn’t reciprocate. Groaning to himself at the imagined scene, he entered his quarters and slammed the door shut. Damn his space wolf for interfering in the equilibrium. Damn his hormones’ enslavement to anything to do with Shiro. Damn Shiro for being so ridiculously perfect in every single aspect of his being.

And, above all, damn Iverson and his piss poor timing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, Iverson, couldn't you have waited ONE MORE SECOND??


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a longer wait this time, I got kind of stuck (that'll serve me right for having no plan!) but to make up for it, it's a longer chapter as well :)

“Keith…I think you better come here.” 

Keith couldn’t identify the tone in Shiro’s voice when he called over the comms. Wondering if they were finally going to talk about The Moment, he sighed. They’d both pretended nothing had happened, and now the almost kiss hovered behind them like a mirage Keith wasn’t sure he’d really seen. But he knew Shiro’s conscience wouldn’t allow him to leave his friend in an awkward position so he had in all likelihood prepared a speech where he would gently explain he didn’t like Keith like that. And he’d probably apologize too. Gritting his teeth, a hiss escaped him at the thought.

Putting down the tools he’d been using, he crawled out of the hunter class ship he’d been working on and jumped to the ground. Wiping his hands on a rag, he had to call his appearance good enough. Sweaty, with engine grease on his cheek and and gray streaks all over his overalls. In an attempt to make it a bit better he tied the overalls around his waist, leaving a slightly cleaner white t-shirt. His hair probably looked like a crow’s nest but he couldn’t really help it.

Not that Shiro would play the commanding officer card and insist he appeared in a fresh uniform, but Keith didn’t relish tracking any dirt into the other man’s quarters. Shiro was an admitted neat freak. 

Reaching the hall where Shiro’s quarters lay he wiped his hands on his overall legs one more time and then knocked. 

“Come in.”

He entered but almost walked straight into Shiro. He was standing just inside the door, looking around with a helpless look on his face. Keith glanced around and realized why.

Everything from Keith’s quarters had been moved into the room. Furniture, clothes, cables, reparation projects were strewn over every available bit of floor space. It was crowded in a way it would have been impossible to arrange unless you could…

Unless you could teleport. 

“Oh God.”

Keith saw his couch crammed into the tiny kitchenette, his desk pushed half way into the toilet cubicle. His bed was luckily welded in place - apparently it was to serve as emergency shelter for air raids - but aside from that, everything from his room was squeezed into Shiro’s. 

“I’m _so_ sorry, Shiro, I’ll fix it.”

“But...It’s…” Shiro’s hands fluttered helplessly. 

“You can take my room until I’ve sorted this out. It’ll…” He looked around, ran his hand through his hair. “It’ll take me a little while.”

“Does he...Is your dog trying to say we should  _ live  _ together?”

“Space wolf. And no! No, of course not. It’s…” 

_ Yes? _ His brain politely inquired. Why was his space wolf moving everything he owned into Shiro’s quarters?

“I have no idea.”

o.O.o

Somehow, Kosmo had gotten his way. They’d spent several days moving Keith's belongings back but things would somehow creep back into Shiro’s quarters, no matter how many times Keith told Kosmo no.

So after his day was done, he now headed to the other man’s door and tapped the access code. More often than not Shiro was still out, nobly sacrificing his spare time to give the attention people clamoured for to them. Keith would read, or watch something on his pad. He didn’t really want to think about how comfortable he’d gotten in Shiro’s space, surrounded by his things, his scent. It was soothing in a way his quarters had never been.

It was unexpected as he’d always hated sharing a room when he was at the school. 

“I’m back.”

Shiro had entered during his reverie and Keith looked up from where he was sitting sideways over the armchair.

“Hi.”

The other man strolled into the kitchen as he undid the top buttons in his uniform jacket.

“You know, I kind of like that. It’s been a while, since I could tell someone I’m back.” Shiro turned and tilted his head with a smile. 

Keith’s throat started squeezing shut as his heart picked up a quick tapdance routine. Was Shiro saying he  _ liked  _ living with Keith? He tried swallowing but his heart was onto cartwheels.

“It’s nice having a roommate again.”

His heart lost its momentum and stumbled to the ground. Scraped and fractured, shuddering.

Keith turned his burning eyes to the pad on his drawn up knees.

“It is.”

_ Roommates _ .

o.O.o

Keith wasn’t much for opening up or spilling out his heart. But the last few weeks had taken a toll and before he knew it was happening, he was telling Pidge. Or telling Pidge’s back as she rummaged around an old Earth type engine for spare parts, humming every once in a while to indicate she heard him. He quite liked not having to look her in the eye as he spoke, and she complied by staying half buried in the machinery.

“Herding instinct?” Pidge popped up from the engine. “Really, Keith.”

“What?”

“He’s a space wolf, not a Border Collie.”

“I know that. I’m just saying that-“

Pidge held up a wrench like a professor holding a laser pointer. “You’re forming a hypothesis by building on your - biased - view rather than on empirical evidence. You’re applying dog behaviours of Earth dogs to a species you have never encountered.”

“Well, he looks like a dog,” Keith crossed his arms where he was leaning against the vehicle.

“See, bias.”

She dove back into the engine, fiddled with an exhaust pipe fastening.

“Fine, I’m biased.” Keith dropped his arms again. Shrugged. “It doesn’t explain why he’s doing this.”

“Well.” Pidge appeared again, now with a grease smudge on her nose. “I spoke to the Olkari about it and we’re rather sure Kosmo is of a telepath or empath race.”

“What?”

“An empath. He can sense what you think or feel.”

“I...Wh..How?”

“I’m not exactly sure how,” she tapped a finger against her lips and he knew the question was going on the massive mental list of the Holt siblings of “things to find out”. “But I’m sure they’re right about it.”

“You can’t know that.”

“How does he always know who to attack, Keith? He doesn’t understand the galaxy politics. He senses who’s bad from you. Either he understands you or he thinks all Galra except the ones you happen to like taste really nice.” 

“But…”

Pidge didn't let him form a sentence but forged on, lecturing tone enthusiastic. “So, to get back to why he’s badgering you and Shiro. Extrapolating from him sensing your emotions, if he knows who you don’t like, he also knows who you  _ do  _ like. And who do you like more than anyone else?" Pidge held up a finger like she was a lecturer, stopping for dramatic effect. “Shiro.”

Keith just sat stunned, feeling the world stop making sense around him.

“You’ve basically let him know Shiro is the most important person in the world, and he’s picked up on that you love him, so he loves him. He’s always preferred Shiro to all of us. That time when you were out for the count, he fought with Shiro. Where is he when he’s not with you? Most of the time, with Shiro. He adores him, because you do.” 

“But…” was all Keith could manage again.

Pidge started counting on her fingers. “So, you were jealous of Kincade, hence Kosmo was jealous. You wanted to see Shiro, so Kosmo got you to see Shrio. You were hungry, Kosmo brought you to lunch. He can sense you want to be together with him.”

“He can…”

Damn, Keith swore internally. Shiro was going to be so smug. Kosmo really could tell when he was hungry. 

“He can sense I love Shiro.” He tried out the sentence.

“There you go.”

With a groan he hunched over and covered his face with his hands. “How the hell do I tell Shiro that Kosmo is making his life a pain because I can’t help thinking about him all the time?”

Pidge’s eyes narrowed behind her glasses. “Sounds like a nice segue into, "by the way I love you and can we please go steady?"”

The wording choked a chuckle out of him. Pidge’s idea of love was the feeling you got when you worked out X in a really long equation so he appreciated the attempt. 

“Yes, why don’t I do that and let him turn me down in the gentlest “thanks but no thanks” in human history and then continue to work with him, see him every day and all the while nurse a broken heart and go through slowly losing my best friend? Stellar idea.”

“How do you know he doesn’t love you?”

“He does love me, he just doesn’t love me  _ that  _ way, Pidge.”

“And I’m six foot two,” she retorted with an eye roll. “Keith, I have watched you two circle each other for years, don’t you think it’s time to just  _ be honest and tell Shiro how you feel? _ ”

“I did, once.” Keith wanted to curl up and hide at the memory. “It didn’t go well.”

“Is this when you shouted it at his clone during the heat of battle and he almost killed you?”

Keith’s fingers fluttered to the scar. The fight had left a similar one across his heart when he had opened it to let Shiro see what he meant to him and it had been rejected.

“So what?”

“So, it’s not really fair to expect Shiro to respond to that. What if he thinks you just said it to get the clone to snap out of it? What if he was so traumatized by hurting you he doesn’t remember? What if-”

Keith held up a hand to stop her. “Thanks, Pidge, I get it.” He pushed off the vehicle he was leaning on and tried to make himself believe he wouldn’t lie awake tonight wondering over a million other "what ifs" Pidge hadn’t mentioned.

“Do you? Then _tell him_.”

Keith shook his head. “He’s my best friend. I can’t risk doing anything that’ll change that. And if Shiro’s friendship is all I can have, I’m happy with that. Life isn’t a fairy tale, not every romance is destined to be.”

With that he left his friend to the engines and steered down the hall.

He didn’t hear that behind him in the machine hall, Pidge huffed so her bangs fluttered. “I give up.”

The next instant Kosmo appeared next to her. 


	9. Chapter 9

The teleporting into Shiro’s path had been annoying, moving them out into the desert inconvenient and the moving of furniture exhausting but Kosmo’s new trick proved worse. Keith was sitting in bed, reading a report on a pad when his wolf flashed into view. And so did a very surprised looking Shiro. Sitting in the same position as Keith but on the other side of the bed, he looked up from his pad. Looked around. Spotted Keith, and then they turned to the wolf as one, yelling,

“Kosmo!”

The wolf wagged his tail, then began walking in circles to make himself comfortable on the bed.

While they were “roommates” as Shiro had put it during the day, their beds, due to being bolted to the floor, were thankfully still in different rooms. So every night, Keith returned to his weirdly empty room to sleep. Tonight it seemed, Kosmo didn’t agree with this plan. 

“No, off! Take Shiro back to his room, now!”

Kosmo snorted, then disappeared and Keith once more missed grabbing him as he flickered away.

“Shiro, I’m  _ so _ sorry.”

Turning to his friend, dressed in an ancient t-shirt with the Garrison logo and boxers, he looked younger than Keith had seen him look in a long time. More like the Shiro who had set out for Cerberus. Except for...glasses? He was wearing reading glasses Keith had never seen before. His heart slammed against his ribcage like a kid against a sweet shop window in its immediate reaction to get close. His hormones reacted in sync, like a Riverdance team, and woke to execute a standing ovation. 

The full impact of the realization Shiro was in his bed knocked into him like a freight train and the last functioning brain cells he had skittered away over the floor. His hands tensed into the sheet, anchoring him in place to avoid just jumping in and tasting. 

As if Shiro had heard the thought, he jumped up. He looked warm and glassy eyed. Probably from shock at seeing the absolute need in Keith’s gaze.

“Ah. I… I should go.” 

He tried to look like someone who wouldn’t slide into the spot where Shiro had been to absorb the body heat, pretend it was really Shiro still there. He wondered if his sensitive Galra nose would pick up the scent of him on his sheets. Heat curled in his stomach at the thought and blood warmed his face.

Disappointment was fighting with need for the upper hand over Keith’s emotional register. The register definitely didn’t have the range to support both and it caused a confused cacophony of discordance under his skin. It felt like if he were only allowed to reach out and touch, it’d meld into a harmonious symphony but until then it was a free for all, every musician trading instruments, keys and pace with each other, throwing music sheets out the window and refusing to play in sync with anyone in their vicinity. 

“Ah...Like that?”

While Keith would happily watch those long, muscular legs and let his eyes slide higher -  _ don’t! _ \- there were potentially those at the Garrison who would consider it inappropriate to walk the halls in one’s underwear. 

Shiro stopped backing away, looked down. Horror paled him, then colour washed back over his cheeks. He probably hadn’t considered his crew would see their captain in his black boxers if he walked back to his quarters. And they were both, but especially Keith,  _ very _ aware Shiro would not fit into any clothes of Keith’s. 

“Oh, shit.”

Shiro didn’t swear often but the small profanity was suddenly incredibly funny. Keith bit his lip, convinced this wasn’t a laughing matter and that his space wolf had crossed a line with Shiro. But he couldn’t help the giggles that wanted to burst through at the sight of the older man’s face when he contemplated walking down the hall in his boxers. Slapping his hand over his mouth to contain it, he tried to stifle the laugh. Then he heard a snort from Shiro and looked up. He was laughing too. In moments they were both laughing out loud, Keith bent at the waist in bed, and Shiro flopping down next to him. 

“Can you...imagine...Iverson’s face?” Shiro managed through the laughter and sent Keith into paroxysms. 

He hadn’t laughed like this is...years. Not since...not since before Cerberus. The last time had been at some incredibly bad joke Shiro had made when they’d been out camping the weekend before he left for the mission. 

Slowly they regained some composure, wiping away tears. 

“So…” Keith cleared the last of the laughter from his voice. “I guess you’re stuck.”

Shiro sighed. “I guess I am.” He sat up. “I guess I’ll take the floor. Been on worse in the field.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. We can share the bed.” He tried to will his face to stay one colour. Preferably not scarlet or puce, but he could only hope. “It’s no different than some of the camp sites we’ve had.”

Except none of their campsites had ever included sharing a rather narrow double bed.

Shiro looked to the door, then to the bed. Door, bed. Finally, he sighed. 

“I guess. Hopefully Kosmo will deign to teleport me back in the morning so I can get some clothes.”

The fact that Keith could go get dressed, go grab Shiro’s clothes and bring them here so he could walk back, he promptly ignored. Besides, the space wolf would in all likelihood just bring Shiro back again, dressed or not. Keith was willing to give up a night’s sleep to remain in the vicinity of a partly undressed Shiro. 

Sliding to the edge of the bed, the other man laid down, politely perched on the very edge of the bed. Lying on their backs, staring up at the ceiling, Keith bid goodbye to the idea of sleeping at all that night. The drumming of his heartbeat was as effective in keeping him awake as living next door to a rave. The heat under his skin pulsed in time with the thumps of his heart and it tightened the coils already twisting low in his abdomen. Fighting with the urging of his body, Keith rolled over on his side.

o.O.o

He couldn’t tell when he’d fallen asleep but he concluded he must have as he was now waking up. Warm and safe, he relished the sensation, a hum of pleasure working its way up his throat. Something was really good about life, and this morning in particular and he enjoyed it fully. The alarm still hadn’t gone off so he could effort to snuggle against the body behind him and-

His eyes flew open.  _ The body behind him? _ Awake now he sensed there was a warm shape behind him, spooned around his back. A heavy weight anchored around his middle turned out to be a toned arm, and the tickling at the back of his neck was breath playing with the ends of his hair. Memories from the night before returned through a pre-caffeine haze and he stiffened. Shiro. Shiro was in his bed and had at some point through the night ended up snuggled up to him. Mind suddenly on fire with at least forty-five possible ways he could turn the relatively innocent cuddle into an R-rated finale, he tensed. Shiro moved behind him, mumbled something.

Mumbled something straight into Keith’s ear in a gravelly, deep, sleep clouded voice. He could have been reading the phone book and gotten a visceral response from Keith’s hormones but he was rather sure the older man had said “five more minutes, baby.” The endearment rolled through him like the tolling of a bell, ringing out into an echo in his head. 

_ Baby _ .

Keith swallowed an undignified whimper and rolled off the bed. Landing on the floor, he rested his forehead against the cool ground and willed his body to settle down. There was no way he could stand up in his present condition and even pretend Shiro didn’t have an effect on him. 

“Keith? What are you doing?”

Shiro was asking from above, his voice sleepy and Keith closed his eyes for a moment. Fate was cruel.

“Nothing,” he squeaked. “Fell out of bed.”

The older man snorted and the bed creaked under his weight as he fell back. “Well, when you’re done with that, do you want to go for a run before breakfast?”

A run. A long, sweaty, tiring run. Maybe that would tire him out enough to keep the exact sensation of having a Shiro imprint plastered against his back from replaying gleefully in his mind.

“Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what else Kosmo will have to do to get these two to own up to the obvious...Luckily he's got some help coming! 
> 
> I'm so happy to hear you're liking this, I'm having a lot of fun writing it!


	10. Chapter 10

“Pidge, I don’t want to get involved.”

“That’s too bad, you already are.”

The short pilot pulled herself up to sit on the counter. They were all crowded inside Hunk’s kitchen and he was currently making a batch of cookies “to keep his focus”. Lance was complaining about the reason for the clandestine meeting of Voltron, sans Keith and Shiro. 

“They’re too oblivious, Pidge, nothing we do would ever get them to admit they like each other.”

“I don’t think agree. Kosmo’s already laid all the groundwork.”

The wolf appeared a second after the mention of his name, wagging his tail. Three pairs of hands reached for the bowl, the spatula and the carton of eggs his tail swept off the kitchen island. Realizing the limited space with everyone in there, he flitted out of view and back in, now on top of the island.

“Kosmo, you know what I think about space wolves on the counter,” Hunk chided.

Kosmo tilted his head, as if to ask “where should I go then?”

Hunk looked around but aside from on top of the refrigerator there was nowhere to go.

“Fine. Just this once.”

The space wolf yipped and sat down gingerly between the cookie sheets. 

“What do you mean by ground work?” Allura asked.

Pidge launched into her lecture once more. At the end, Hunk was smiling, Allura looked thoughtful and Lance was laughing so hard tears were streaming down his cheeks.

“You’re…” He tried to speak. “You’re...telling me...the reason Keith and...Shiro...have disappeared together lately...is....because Keith  _ can’t control his thirst _ _?!_”   
  


“Rude,” Pidge wrinkled her nose. “But succinct.”

Lace fell off the island, holding on to his knees for support while he kept laughing.

Pidge just pitched her voice over it. “So, I think they only need a little nudge. A little help for Kosmo who’s been working very hard to help these to hapless idiots.”

At the mention of his name, the wolf’s ears pricked up. His tail thumped and Hunk calmly lifted the bowl of batter to avoid it being swept to the floor.

“Pidge, I never knew you were such a romantic,” Allura teased.

“I’m not. I’m a logic. Here are two people who do love each other but are too damaged by the belief the other doesn’t want them. It’s like two twos denying they make four. Or for the reciprocals of Fibonacci’s constant to deny-”

“We get it, thanks.” Lance had recovered enough to interject. Any math talk gave him a shooting headache just above his left eye. 

“Do you?” Allura asked innocently with a raised eyebrow.

“Anyway,” Lance hurried to change the topic from his understanding of maths. “I think Pidge is right. It’s painful to watch these two.”

“Hunk?”

Pidge turned to the cook. He pondered things slower than the rest of them, less driven by impulse.

“I...I think we have to be careful. Shiro and Keith are best friends and if they were meant to be more, if it was right, wouldn’t they have worked it out by now?”

“Are we talking about the same people here? In what universe are Shiro and Keith open about their emotions? Ever?” Lance asked and reached for one of the finished cookies.

“I just mean that they have been friends forever. Changing their dynamic could change that.”

Pidge tapped her index finger on her lips. “Hunk has a point. But,” she caught the cookie Lance threw her. “I think they need to talk about this. With this between them, they won’t be able to stay best friends forever.”

“So what are you suggesting?” Allura said, after politely swallowing the last of her cookie.

**   
  
**

o.O.o

**   
  
**

The roof had always been his and Shiro’s. No one came up there really and that had been the main selling point for a miserably surly fourteen-year-old. Keith had started taking to the roof to avoid his classmates and it hadn’t taken Shiro long to track him down. After the first few times of forced conversation in which Keith had fought tooth and nail internally to not let the older man think he was having any influence over him at all, they’d started just spending time there. It was an uncomfortable metal clad roof, the induction points for the AC system the only thing that broke up the flat expanse. But the view was unbeatable. The desert stretched in all directions, dunes rolling towards the horizon in gentle sweeps. Straight ahead faced west and Keith didn’t know how many times he’d watched the sun set, some new injustice burning in his stomach, or later, the futility of his feelings for Shiro clawing inside him as the glowing orb slowly sunk below the furthest hills. It had been his place to think and their place to talk.

And now, Kosmo apparently thought it was where he should be.

“Kosmo, no!” 

He’d said it so often lately, he should maybe get it tattooed. On his forehead, maybe that would help the space wolf understand. Though even if he were an empath, reading may be beyond him.

Normally he wouldn’t mind being up on the roof, but today he’d promised Pidge they would head into town for “anything that isn’t food goo”. With her not having a licence, despite being allowed to pilot a three tonne spaceship, Keith had promised he’d drive them. 

_ “And not on the hover bike. I get sand in my underwear.”  _

So he’d assented they’d borrow one of the Garrison’s pickups and left his beaten up bike gear in his room.

Sighing, he steered for the door. Before he reached it, it opened and Shiro stepped onto the roof. 

“Shiro?”

“Keith. Pidge said you had something you wanted to talk to me about and…”

Shiro’s eyes were fastened on something behind Keith. His reflexes kicked in and Keith whirled around. No Galra towered over them, no enemy ships breaching atmosphere at the horizon. 

No, this was worse.

Much worse.

Set up on the roof was a round table covered in a white tablecloth. It was set for two and candles burned against the rapidly darkening twilight. It was unmistakably a date set-up. It might as well have some guy playing the violin and heart shaped confetti raining down.

Kosmo sat proudly next to it, wearing a red bow tie for the occasion, his tail wagging. Wizened by experience though, he flickered out of view the second Keith turned around.

“Keith?”

Shiro’s eyes were wide when he turned them on him. 

“One second,” Keith managed to grind out. Stalking for the table, he saw a folded note spelling his name on one of the plates. Picking it up, he read “ _ Don’t argue” _ in Pidge’s messy scrawl. 

“Oh god.”

Standing closer he could now see the table was set with standard Garrison tableware - hardy white plates and serviceable cutlery - but someone had folded elaborate napkins and polished everything to a sheen. Food was spread out and Keith could see Hunk in every detail.

Without hearing him, Shiro had come up behind him and he put a hand to his shoulder. The gentle gesture made Keith jump and the other man withdrew his hand.

“Keith?” He asked again, his voice filled with something he wasn’t sure he could hope for. 

Slowly, he turned, the note still in his hand and his eyes fastened on the ground.

“Keith, what is this?” Shiro gestured to the table. 

A dead man could quite likely tell this was a date. Would Shiro believe him if he said it was a strategy meeting for two?

“Um…”

His thoughts were running at two hundred miles a minute, all the old what-ifs flashing by. Yet he knew that keeping this secret from Shiro was corroding the foundation of their friendship. Would they really be able to survive Keith checking his every move and word before acting forever? Would they get stuck into the roles they played? What if he one day wasn’t more than a cardboard cut-out of the friend Shiro had once had because he couldn’t allow himself to give more? At least not without giving himself away. And if the end result was the same, him losing his best friend, was it not better to do it honestly? Tell Shiro how he felt and then watch as discomfort slowly sank its roots like weeds into that same foundation and cracked it apart, gently but inexorably?

The whole litany of doubt had zoomed by in a millisecond and he felt his heart crack at the decision. He’d always known he’d have to tell Shiro one day but having him as a friend meant too much. He wasn’t sure he could take losing him.

But the time had run out. 

“It’s...a date.” His voice was so quiet he could barely hear it himself and his eyes were still fastened just in front of the toes of Shiro’s boots.

“You’re going on a date? With who?”

_ Oh wow. _

This was even harder than he’d thought.

“Shiro…”

“Do I know them?”

A laugh that was almost a sob shook Keith from head to toe. “Goddammit, Shiro, it’s a date for us. You and me. You have to know that I’m in love with you!”

The flash of emotion broke the invisible chains training his eyes to the ground and his gaze flew to meet Shiro’s. 

“I...You...What?” came the eloquent response.

Keith threw his hands in the air before slumping down to sit on one of the chairs. Leaning over his knees, he rubbed his hands over his face. To hide it or to try to stop the tears that wanted to spill over, he wasn’t sure. 

“I love you Shiro, and I’m sorry. I never meant for it to happen and I know it messes up our friendship and it’s awkward as hell but please,  _ please  _ stay my friend. I really need you, and I don’t want this to ruin anything even though I know it will but maybe if we try to pretend I never said anything then we can get past it and you’d know but it wouldn’t get in the way and I...and I…”

“Keith,” Shiro’s voice was much closer than he expected and he looked up.

At some point the other man had sunk to his knees in front of the chair Keith was sitting on and now he gently pulled at Keith’s wrists to remove his hands from his face. His face was so close, Keith could make out the specks of silver in the gray of his eyes. 

“I love you.”

“I know. I know you do, I just...I know it can never be like what I feel for you. I know you think of me as a brother, or something.”

Shiro’s chuckle was dark and a little wet. “Keith, I don’t have a brother but I can assure you, it’s definitely not how I think about you.  _ I love you _ .” 

The words were finally sinking in, tentatively gathering hold in Keith’s conscious. 

“As...in…?”

“As in,” Shiro breathed and closed the space between them. His hands ran from Keith’s wrists, up his arms, to cup his face. His lips moved slowly, just covering his. A shuddered breath rattled through Keith. It was light and over too quick, but Shiro had kissed him. Kissed him and told him he loved him. 

The knowledge tried to tentatively take hold. He had to try out the words to help them along.

“You… You love me?” 

“With everything that I am, Keith.” Shiro’s voice was so gentle and deep, his eyes so incredibly soft and warm when they looked at him. It made his heart ache in places he didn’t know it had. Like heart yoga.

“But...I...You never...said?”

It was meant to be statement and it came out as a question.

“You said you loved me - as a brother.” Shiro bent his head as his gaze skittered away over the roof cladding. “I was...I was trying to be that for you, tried to fight this.”

“Oh god.” Keith couldn’t believe this was happening. It had to be some kind of dream.

Hardly believing he could, he put his hand to Shiro’s cheek to tilt his head back to look at him again. 

“I said I love you and...and it didn’t bring you back. I always thought you considered me something like a brother so I… I tried that. And…” This was the part that always hurt the most when he thought about it. Not the wound, or the sometimes aching scar, or even the fact that the real Shiro hadn’t been around for months and he had missed it, never noticed, but how the words that turned the key, the words that got him back proved Shiro had always seen him as a brother, a protege. A stupid kid. “And it brought you back.”

“Keith…” It was Keith’s turn to have his gaze dragged back to Shiro’s. “That was the clone. It only had a small part of me, it was a puppet to Haggar. Doing anything against her will was like moving through deep water. Slow, heavy. In the dark. But however small the part of me it had, that part reacted when you said that. You just didn’t give it enough time to see it working.”

Doubts that Keith had hosted for months, longing he’d carried for years, all crested inside him and he sucked in a shuddering breath. Swiped at his eyes irritably.

“Sorry. This is stupid.” He gestured to his blurry eyes.

“It’s not.”

“It’s just been… so long and I…”

Below him, Shiro’s eyes were wide and dark. “How...long?” His voice was quiet, as if he were embarrassed to ask. “Since...before the clone?”

Keith realized Shiro was afraid. Afraid he had fallen for the clone and not for the real him. 

A strangled laugh free of humour escaped Keith. “Since before Cerberus, Shiro. Since I was too young to really understand what it meant.”

Shock flashed over Shiro’s face, slowly transformed into wonder. 

“Before Cerb...But you...you never…”

“Said? What would I say? “Hey, Shiro I know I’m a minor and you don’t see me as anything but another responsibility but I’m in love with you, just FYI.””

“You were never just a responsibility to me. And maybe not like that but...We could have talked about it. I could have helped you see that I...That I was too old for you, that you needed to have experiences with people your own age.”

“I didn’t like any people my age. You’re the only one who has always been there for me. You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted.”

“Keith…”

Before Shiro had a chance to reply, Keith continued. He’d rather drag it all out at once. 

“And Kosmo sensed that. I spoke to Pidge and she said the Olkari believe Kosmo is an empath race, or even slightly telepathic and he could sense it. It’s why he’s been behaving this way, bringing us away from others, setting up what even he seems to understand are dates.”

“Kosmo did this?”

Shiro looked doubtingly at the table clearly set by someone with opposable thumbs. 

Keith snorted. “This is Pidge, and Hunk. Lance and Allura definitely set the table, Pidge orchestrated and Hunk cooked.”

“They all knew?”

“I think everyone but you knows, Shiro,” Keith admitted sheepishly.

“I guess I must have been too busy trying to hide my own feelings,” Shiro chuckled. 

“But you...You feel that way for me?”

Shiro’s face softened. “I do. You can’t know how badly I wished those times Kosmo brought us together they really were dates.”

“You know, I think they were. I think this might be our seventh date.”

“Are you trying to tell me we’ve been dating for a month without either of us knowing it?”

“I think so.”

Shiro laughed, eyes twinkling. “Well, happy anniversary.”

Keith didn’t really want to explain that his reasoning was far more self-serving. If they counted this as their seventh date, it’d be high time to take it to the next level. 

“Want to celebrate?” Keith nodded in direction of the table. 

“I do. But first, I’d like to do this properly.” He tilted his head, hands returning to the sides of Keith’s face and everything inside him ground to a halt in expectation. His heartbeat paused, breath held and he waited for the moment. The first time had been quick and wrought with doubt, this time all that was left was the building expectation. Their lips touched and Keith had a brief moment to think fireworks didn’t cover it.

Try nuclear explosion. 

The impact levelled everything inside him that had been there before, setting it ablaze. A pressure wave rocketed through him from his lips to the soles of his feet. Numb to everything his body reacted on instinct, clinging to Shiro. His fingers tightened in his uniform jacket and a sound somewhere between a sob and a moan escaped him. Shiro swallowed it hungrily, hauling him even closer so he was dragged to the tips of his toes. 

It felt like being offered a drink after years in the desert, like sitting down in front of a fire after years in the snow. Every particle of his being washed over with an encompassing relief. 

_ Finally _ .

His hands travelled from Shiro’s arms, to his shoulders, to wind around his neck. Plunging into the short hair at his neck, feeling it run through his fingers when he got higher. Shiro’s heartbeat was pummeling against his, fast and heavy and Keith let it soak in through him. The familiar smell of him, now so close, the hands that he knew better than his own around his waist, the lips he’d watched in thrall for years moving against his own. Every facet that added to his knowledge that this was  _ Shiro _ , Shiro kissing him, left him awestruck and panting. 

When they parted he didn’t know how much time had passed but the sun had set completely and the candles had burned lower. Keith’s lips were rubbed raw and he didn’t care one bit if they hurt. 

Leaning his forehead against Keith’s, Shiro smiled. “Do you think we should go on this date our friends set up for us?”

“Yeah, I think we should.”

They turned, still holding hands, to find Kosmo sitting in front of the table in his red bow tie. He was doggy beaming, tail thumping against the ground.

Sharing a smile, they both crouched.

“Good boy, Kosmo. You’re a good boy.”

The space wolf yipped and licked both their faces, running in twining circles around them both, making them laugh. 

“I think he’s happy for us,” Shiro laughed. 

“I think so too,” Keith said, sitting down on the roof with the wolf running around him. “And if Pidge is right, he’s happy with us.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty happy.” Shiro slanted a look at him. “I think I could get happier though.”

“What?” Keith snapped his head around.

“If you kissed me again.”

Shaking his head on a chuckle, Keith leaned closer. “I think that’d make me happier too.”

With the stars coming to life above them, and an ecstatic space wolf running around them, they kissed once more. 

****   
  



	11. Epilogue

Kosmo was getting used to his humans’ planet. There were things he disliked, like sprinklers and fireworks, but there were a lot of things to like too. Ear scratches, belly scratches, back scratches. Pancakes. Those things that squeaked when you bit them and didn’t bleed anything but rubber flakes. 

He liked his human most of all. Keith invented fun games, and now that he’d stopped yelling at him all the time he was even better. He liked Shiro too. Shiro was warm and sturdy and didn’t mind when Kosmo stretched over his lap. His voice was at a register that his ears liked and he gave the best ear scratches. And he never tried to brush Kosmo’s teeth. Krolia had tried that and they both had the mental scars to show for it. 

Nothing much had changed about his days since Keith and Shiro finally imprinted on each other but he enjoyed not having the blistering, overwhelming sensations flooding him all the time. This way was calmer, deeper. He still slept on Keith’s bed, and Shiro was allowed to too. Sometimes the sensations would get too loud in his head though and he’d poof away to the silence and comfy basket in Shiro’s room. He had no interest in his flock’s mating habits.

In the morning, they woke up and the happy endorphins flying around the room would put Kosmo in a good mood for the day to come. Sometimes he decided to walk with Shiro and Keith to breakfast, and lie under their table. They’d sneak him things despite it being frowned upon. 

They’d practice, just like before but they ended up doing that thing with licking each others faces a lot more. Kosmo would stay far away from the rooms with the showers until they got back.

While they both sat in the dreaded “meetings”, he would get out and go exploring. He had a good idea of the desert to the west now. Everything that lived there, the different smells, the hiding places and the good lookout spots. He’d found a vile animal at the Garrison that had no business being there and he chased it whenever he saw it. A “squirrel”, Keith called it but Kosmo just knew it was his mortal nemesis and deserved to be chased if it dared show its fluffy tail on Garrison grounds. 

He’d sense when Keith was done from the relief flooding through him, so he’d head back. Then they would have dinner with Shiro before heading out for a real walk. Or ride as was sometimes the case. The humans liked to stare at their central star disappearing down the horizon when the planet turned. 

Then they would go back home and Shiro would often stare at one of those pads the humans were fascinated with. Often he could be convinced to stroke Kosmo’s ears while he did it. And he didn’t seem to notice if he crept closer until he was across his lap. It made Keith let out that rolling, happy sound, but Kosmo wasn’t really sure why. The words he knew covered “dog” but not “lap”. 

Bedtime would arrive and Kosmo would take the foot end where it was cooler while Keith and Shiro slept like puppies, pretty much on top of each other. Then it would start all over.

It wasn’t a bad life at all. Kosmo thought he could really learn to like Earth. He’d just get rid of all sprinklers and squirrels and it’d be just perfect. 

Just perfect.

The End

If you want to see what I'm working on now, head to [Legends of Fall](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21651019), an autumn small town Sheith AU :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ta-da! I'm sorry for the wait for the last bit there, I got a bit carried away with my next project. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing this bit of silliness and I am so happy to hear you have liked it too. Thank you to everyone who has left kudos, and especially those who took the time to comment, it always makes my day! I hope you enjoyed the conclusion to finally earn the tag "idiots to lovers".


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